Learning – Page 2 – How did You become You?

Is your Mind your Master? or Are You the Master of your Mind?

Why am I asking the question about who is the Master; You or your Mind?

Because it is important. Our brain is absolutely amazing at learning, think of all the patterns laid down in a lifetime, all those things that can just be done automatically now, without consciously paying attention. Dressing, eating, washing, walking, running, riding a bike, balancing, swimming, changing gear in a car, speaking, reading, understanding language, knitting, sewing, playing an instrument, writing, etc. This is incredibly efficient and it is why the brain learns patterns, because to learn means you need to pay conscious attention and that takes energy, glucose. The brain uses about 20% of the body’s energy supply, so the more it can do without constantly paying attention the better 🙂

Beliefs and the Child Brain

So what? Well, as per the slide above, there are a lot of things the brain learns as a child, shoulds, musts, have tos, ought tos, for example that may, or may not, be helpful in later adult life. We learn beliefs about ourselves, for example “I’m not good enough! Be Perfect, Please everybody.” Of course if you hold a belief (A lens through which you perceive reality) you will always have evidence to back it up, because I am right in this belief and ‘look, see the evidence’ about me being not good enough! Hence low self esteem is perpetuated until!

Until what? Until you wake up and begin to think about this belief, to observe it. See it for what it really is:-

Something you learned
Taught to you by others
Useful at the time of learning, because it kept you safe

By doing this you begin the journey to becoming the master of your mind

“The unexamined life is not worth living” (Plato – Socrates)

At this point, just begin to notice the beliefs. I will cover how to begin a process of change in a later post called “Feel the Fear and do it anyway”

What beliefs (lenses) have you formed about yourself? (Write them down) Look at them and really think about:-
When you learned them?
Where you learned them? From whom? (Note this may not be easy to do. It is worth it)
Are they useful now?

Continue reading “Is your Mind your Master? or Are You the Master of your Mind?”

The Pause

The Pause, it does need practice, remember the brain is a meaning-seeking, pattern-making prediction organ. How it lays down patterns, is by repetition – learning. Once you have mastered the Pause, you create the state of being response-able and hence are better able to respond rather than react.

How many times today did you notice others Pausing and Choosing?
How many times today were you able to Pause and Choose your response?

The Second Presupposition

The second presupposition
The presupposition is that, “We each map the world according to our beliefs and the map is not the territory”, this is also fundamental when thinking about how did you become you

We each have a map and those maps are as different on the inside as we are different on the outside (how we look), because of the different things we have experienced or learned in life. You cannot assume for instance that just because you know something, or think another will do something specific in a particular situation, that they know it too, or they will do as you expect.
o When I get stuck, in my mind, with something i.e. I keep ending up in the same thought pattern, it is as if I’ve run out of map symbols or indication of a road to take me forward.
o Someone else though, with different experience and learning can share a possible way to handle the situation, from their map and thus my map is enhanced.
It is the maps, I believe that really differentiate us as people. For instance most self-made millionaires, (I’m not one yet) do not use the word failure or believe they fail at anything, instead their map may work as follows:-

o Do something (e.g. invest in a new area of business)
o Look at the results (get feedback)
o Make decisions about what to do next based on experience
o Act on those decisions
o Loop back to second bullet
– If the results are not as you want them, a decision you might make is to get out of this business

• You look on this as a sensible decision based on the evidence you found at this time
• Ask what have I learned from this?
• Move on to something new with this experience under your belt now
• You have not failed, just did stuff that eventually did not work out and learned from it.

We learn just as much, in my opinion, probably more, from the things that do not work in life as we do from the things that do.
If you look at the example above, as probably most of us would when the results are not as we desire, then you would be using the words fail, failure, no good, bad, then making the failure mean you are a failure and no good at business, hence forming a belief or several beliefs about yourself.

How do you think about the above?

Do you Fail or Learn?

Can you change your beliefs about this?